Ingot handling device



Och 17, 1933.

M. MORGAN 1,931,354

INGOT HANDLING DEVICE Filed sept. 10,Y 1951 2 sheets-sheet 1 l l Il, z

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Oct. 17, 1933. M. MORGAN INGOT HANDLING DEVICE Filed Sept. 10, 1951 2 SheetsSheet 2 /vl/ f f f f f Rm// 1m? u n w Q0 R wm m .QJMWH my@ Ul. B

Patented Oct 17, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE Morgan Construction Company,

Worcester,

Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application September 10, 1931 Serial No. 562,117

13 Claims. (Cl. 214-84) 'I'he present invention relates to the handling of ingots in steel mills and the like. A

In the ordinary practice, each ingot is r moved from the soaking pit by a crane, or equivalent device, the latter being operated to deposit the ingot, substantially vertically, in a form or receptacle which is open at the top to permit the ingot to be dropped therein. This form or receptacle is usually mounted on a truck or car arranged to travel on a track that runs between the soaking pits and the desired delivery point of the ingots, for example, the approach table of a mill, a forging press, or the like; the procedure, under such circumstances, is to move the ingot-laden truck to said delivery point, tip the form or receptacle so as to discharge the ingot onto conveyor rollers or other receiving devices, and then run the truck back to the particular soaking pit from which the next succeeding ingot is to be drawn.

'Ihe ordinary tipping ingot receptacle, as above described, delivers the ingot upper end foremost to the conveyor rollers or other receiving devices, this being the end corresponding to the upper end of the ingot mold where the metal is poorest and where its impurities are concentrated. It has been proposed heretofore to discharge the ingot bottom end foremost from a tipping receptacle; see the copending application of Alfred R. Keller, Serial No. 256,902, filed February 25, 1928, for a Method of and apparatus for handling ingots. In the reduction of ingots, it is desirable in certain situations to present them top end foremost to the reducing 55 rolls, or other instrumentalities for operating on them, and in other situations to present them bottom end foremost to said instrumentalities. My invention therefore resides in a tipping ingot receptacle which is operable selectively, as

desired, to present initially either the top or the bottom end of the ingot to reducing rolls, a forging press, or other operating devices; other and further objects and advantages of the invention are set forth in detail in the following descrip- 46 tion, reference being had in this connection to the accompanying drawings, wherein Fig. 1 is a plan view of an ingot handling device involving the invention.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the mechanism shown in Fig. 1,L

Figs. 3 and 4 are views similar to Fig. 2, illustrating the operation of said device under different conditions.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the different figures.

The invention is here shownl in connection with an ingot car or truck 1, whose wheels 2, 2 travel on a track 3 that extends, for example, from a battery of soaking pits, not shown, to the approach table of the milL-said table being de picted as constituted by a series of driven conveyor rolls 4, 4.

The ingot handling device of my invention, here shown as mounted on the car 1 (although, obviously, my invention is not in any sense lim- 55 ited to such mounting), consists of a cradle 5 having a curved bottom 6 and substantially upright sides 7, 7, the latter affording suitable openings to receive the trunnions 8, 8 of a hollow open-ended ingot receptacle 9. Said receptacle 10 9, in its normal ingot-receiving position, stands substantially upright, as shown in Fig. 2, and the crane which removes each ingot from the soak-1 ing pit is manipulated to drop said ingot, bottom end foremost, into said receptacle 9, as a result 7 of which the bottom end of said ingot rests against the curved bottom 6 of the cradle 5, as shown in Fig. 2. The opening in said receptacle 9 is only slightly larger than the ingot, so that the latter is held in a substantially upright position in said receptacle.

One of the trunnions 8 of said receptacle 9 has secured thereto a sector gear 10, whose teeth are in mesh with a pinion 11, the shaft of which has secured thereto a worm gear 12 that is 35 adapted to be driven by a worm 13 on a shaft 14 supported at right angles to the worm gear shaft.

A gear 15 on shaft 14 meshes with a driving pinion 16 on the shaft of a reversible driving motor 17, the latter being mounted in the present instance on the car or truck 1. The operation of said motor 17 in one direction or the other, through the medium of suitable controlling means, not shown, adapted to be manipulated by an operator, procures, through the above described gearing, the tilting of the receptacle 9 for the discharge of the contained ingot onto the roller table 4, 4.

For example, when the receptacle 9 is tilted counterclockwise from the position shown in Fig. 101 2, the lower end of the contained ingot drags over the curved bottom 6 of cradle 5 until the lower end clears the edge of said cradle, this movement disposing the ingot in an inclined position, Fig.' 3, where it is free to slide by gravity 105 out of the receptacle 9, lower end foremost onto the conveyor rollers 4, 4; preferably, this discharge action is assisted by the provision of a. plurality of rollers Y18, 18, arranged in that side of the receptacle 9 against which the ingot 110 rests when said receptacle is tilted into the position shown in Fig. 3. In consequence of this mode of ingot discharge, the lower end of theA ingot, where the metal is purest and least subject to splitting, is presented initially to the reducing rolls of the mill, thus insuring minimum wastage of the stock in the operation of cropping the billet or bar resulting from the reduction of said ingot.

The foregoing mode of operation is preferred when the ingot has been cast in a capped or hot top mold. Usually, however, when the ingot has been cast in an uncapped or open top mold, it is desirable to present the ingot top end foremost to the mill rolls. Under these conditions, the motor 17 is operated to produce Va clockwise tipping of the receptacle 9 from the position shown in Fig. 2, so that said receptacle is moved into the inclined position shown in Fig. 4, where the ingot is free to slide out by gravity, top end foremost, onto the conveyor rollers 4, 4. This discharge action may be assisted by the provision of a plurality of rollers 19, 19 in that side of the receptacle against which the ingot rests when in the position shown in Fig. 4.

I claim:-

1. An ingot handling device, comprising an open-ended receptacle adapted to receive an ingot in a substantially vertical position, a support underlying the open lower end of said receptacle, and means for tilting said receptacle, selectively, in either direction, relative to said support, to dispose said ingot in a position for endwise discharge in a single direction, with either its top end foremost or its bottom end foremost.

2. An open-ended ingot receptacle tiltable ln either direction for the endwise discharge in a single direction of its contained ingot either top end foremost or bottom end foremost and a stationary support underlying said receptacle and substantially coextensive with the travel of said receptacles lower end, between said two positions of endwise ingot discharge.

3. An ingot handling device comprising a tiltable open-ended receptacle, and a cradle having -a curved bottom substantially concentric with the axis on which said receptacle is tiltable, said bottom being of sufficient angular extent to contact the lower end of an ingot in said receptacle between inclined discharge positions which are substantially 180 of ingot movement apart.

4. The combination with an ingot-transporting car, of means thereon to receive and support an ingot in a substantially vertical position, said means comprising two relatively shiftable elements in supporting relation, respectively, to the bottom and sides of the ingot, and means for shifting one of said elements relatively, in opposite directions, to establish selectively a position of endwise discharge with the top end of the ingot foremost, or a similar position of endwise discharge in the same direction with the lower end of the ingot foremost.

5. The combination with an ingot-transporting car, of means thereon to receive and support an ingot in a substantially vertical position, said means comprising a relatively stationary element and a relatively movable element, one of said elements being in supporting relation to the bottom of the ingot and the other element being engaged by the sides of said ingot, and means for shifting said movable element in one direction or the other to procure, selectively, the endwise discharge in a single direction of said ingot from the car, either top end foremost or bottom end foremost.

6. The combination with an ingot-transport- 7. A device of the class describedffor the reception and support in substantially upright position of an ingot, said device comprising a relatively stationary element in supporting relation to the lower end of the ingot, and a receptacle element substantially surrounding the ingot and open at its ends, said last-named element being shiftable in one direction to carry the ingots lower end clear of the first-named element, for endwise discharge of said ingot lower end foremost, and being shiftable in the other direction to procure endwise discharge in the same direction of said ingot, but with its upper end foremost.

8. An ingot handling device comprising a tiltable open-ended receptacle, and a relatively stationary cradle having a curved bottom substantially concentric with the axis on which said receptacle is tilted, said receptacle and cradle operating to receive and support an'ingot in a substantially upright position, and means for tilting said receptacle for endwise discharge of said ingot, either top end foremost or bottom end foremost.

9. An ingot handling device comprising an open-ended receptacle wherein the ingot is received in a substantially vertical position, a member underlying said receptacle to provide support for the lower end of the ingot, and means for shifting said receptacle relative to said member in one direction to dispose said ingot in an inclined discharge position with its lower end foremost, and in the other direction to dispose said ingot in substantially the same discharge position, but with its upper end foremost.

10. In apparatus of the class described, the combination with a set of conveyor rolls and an ingot-transporting car for delivering ingots to said rolls, of means on said car to procure selectively the discharge of an ingot to said rolls either top end foremost or bottom end foremost, said means comprising a tiltable open-ended receptacle that normally holds the ingot in a substantially vertical position and a relatively stationary member underlying said receptacle, to provide a supporting surface for the lower end of the ingot, said supporting surface being substantially concentric with the axis on which said receptacle is tiltable and extending angularly between ingot discharge positions which are substantially 180 of receptacle movement apart.

11. An ingot handling device comprising a base adapted to support an ingot placed on end thereon, and means for laterally engaging and supporting said ingotsaid means being mounted for swinging movement about a substantially horizontal axis above the base for tilting said ingot relative to the base in either direction to a desired position for endwise discharge of the ingot with either end foremost.

12. An ingot receiving and delivering device 150 13. An ingot handling device comprising a base adapted to support an ingot placed on end thereon, means for laterally engaging and supporting the ingot and mounted for swinging movement above the basefor tilting the ingot in either direction, and power means for procuring the swinging movement of said means in either direction for an endwise discharge of the ingot from said means.

MYLES MORGAN. 

